Safe restraint of infants during automobile transport is of utmost importance, principally because they are relatively defenseless to injury in the event of a collision. Complete restraint in such event would be ideal; but the nature of mounting an infant car seat atop a primary automobile seat, as is standard, presents an added degree of movement which compounds the problem of infant safety in an infant car seat. Consequently, great efforts are made in the design of infant car seats to secure the infant as fixedly as possible. A rearward-facing, unitary construction of an infant car seat is generally considered ideal for satisfying safety requirements.
On the other hand, the safe restraint of an infant must be balanced with convenience and comfort both for the infant and for individuals resPonsible for the infant. The field of infant car seats is therefore presented with several other obstacles not encountered with restraint devices that are intended for adult use only. Not only must an infant car seat protect its occupant from the impact forces caused during a collision, but it is also desirable that the seat be easily oriented to enable placement and removal of an infant. It is also desirable that the seat be easily removable from the car when not in use and that the seat be capable of facing either forwardly or rearwardly. For adult passengers, convenience and comfort are enabled with adjustable seats, such as by equipping the seat to recline and/or swivel relative to its base.
Consequently, even though the idea of equipping an infant car seat to accomplish such movements seems to contravene the object of maximum restraint, infant car seats which provide some degree of movement have been proposed in the past. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,877 to Ettridge for an invention entitled "Children's Reclining Car Seats" discloses a seat which can be moved between a slumbering position and a sitting position. Further, though not specifically intended for automobile use, U.S. Pat. No. 1,577,807 to Orwick discloses a chair which can be swiveled on its pedestal. Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,346 to Young, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, discloses and claims an infant restraint device for use in a moving vehicle which can be both reclined and swiveled.
However, due to the added safety problems accompanying the presence of movable seats and moving parts thereof, each of the previous proposals have never reached the market. It is an object of the present invention to overcome the difficulties and the obstacles encountered by the prior art.
Additionally, as effective as the above-cited devices may be for their particular intended purposes, the present invention recognizes there is still, and indeed always will be, room for improving such devices by either strengthening the devices for greater safety or by making them easier to handle and use. Such are objectives of the present invention. Furthermore, the present invention recognizes that these objectives are not mutually exclusive.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a safety car seat for infants which is sufficiently rugged to withstand impact forces and restrain the occupant from movement which might otherwise cause death or injury. Another object of the present invention is to provide an infant car seat which distributes forces over larger surface areas to help optimize the seat's structural integrity.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a safety car seat for infants which can be moved and reconfigured for the comfort of the infant or for facilitating placement of the infant into the seat or removal of the infant from the seat. The present invention is further directed to providing a pivotable infant car seat, the parts of which are configured to cooperate in a manner which does not compromise the structural integrity of the seat.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a safety car seat for infants which is relatively light, easy to operate, relatively easy to manufacture and which is cost effective for its intended purposes. Many other objects will be obvious to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing and following and in view of the prior art.